Indonesia Embraces Progress

Posted: November 7, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Human Rights, just because, Women's Rights | Tags: , , | 18 Comments

I wanted to highlight some good stuff today because it seems like the headlines have been pretty depressing recently.  As you know, I love to read about women’s organizations around the world and learn about other cultures.   I’ve mentioned that my research has a lot to do with developing nations and why some develop rapidly and others languish. Indonesia is one of the countries I follow closely.

It used to be thought that every economic development problem could be solved by just putting more technology in place in a country or adding more physical capital or infrastructure.  That is important at some level, but given the same amount of technology and infrastructure, some nations will develop a healthy economy and society while others will still have serious issues.

The major factor that’s highlighted in development policies today is a country’s institutions; specifically their soundness and openness.  The most important are institutions that support the judicial and political system.  These institutions must protect private property, not allow the rich and powerful to abuse the poor, and they must be fair and translucent. (Problems we have now here.)   Given that, other solid related institutions will spring up.  These would include educational institutions. If these are in place, financial and economic institutions that bring a country into the modern world will germinate and deepen.   Indonesia is a good place to demonstrate that it’s many things in a country’s culture than can cause it to oppress its women, its minorities, and its poor and a good government can make a difference in many people’s lives.  It’s also on our radar today because of the pending Presidential visit.

One of the bright spots in the ASEAN region is Indonesia.  It is a beacon for many reasons but high among them is that it’s a model of Democratic Islam.  This is from Project Syndicate.

The visit by “Barry Obama,” the Indonesian nickname for the former resident and current United States president, to Jakarta is intended, as much as anything, to celebrate the achievements of the largest Muslim-majority country in the world. In the 12 years since its transition to democracy, Indonesia has regularly held local and national elections, developed a functioning free market, and strengthened its culture of tolerance towards the country’s Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and Chinese minorities.

Of the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, only Indonesia has a “free” rating from Freedom House. The largely Catholic Philippines, Buddhist Thailand, and Confucian Singapore lag behind Indonesia in providing basic democratic rights to their people. American policymakers have therefore looked to Indonesia as a model for the rest of the Muslim world. But what lessons are to be learned from Indonesian democracy?

The most important lesson is that Islamic organizations can provide the backbone of a tolerant civil society. Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), mass Islamic institutions with more than 30 million and 40 million members, respectively, operate more than 10,000 schools and hundreds of hospitals, as well as run youth organizations and support women’s movements. Both have connections to political parties, most of which have consistently spoken out for democracy and against an Islamic state.

Women in Indonesia are the majority workers for the garment industry and work very long hours for very low pay.  There is also a problem with human trafficking.  The government has been responsive to calls to stop the exploitation of women and children. Here’s one unique program via  the BBC. It seems women-only train cars were introduced on government run public transportation to stop women from being sexually harassed and grabbed during their commutes to work.  This reminds me of the pink taxis initiatives that I’ve blogged on before.  However, the pink taxis are a private effort and not public.

Women-only train carriages have been launched in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, in an attempt to prevent sexual harassment on public transport.

The state-run train operator is running two new carriages for its female passengers on one busy commuter route.

The service has been introduced after a series of complaints of sexual harassment from women who travel on Jakarta’s trains and buses.

There are ongoing programs to stop the sexual exploitation of women, but the garment worker’s are still experiencing problems with enforcement of labor laws.  Developing countries are frequently trapped between the need for cash from new industry and the need to protect their people. Another bright spot about Indonesia is that there is no significant gender gap in early or secondary education.  Girls and boys attend school in the same proportions.

As with other parts of the world–including our own–some policy makers in the rural areas still view girls in a poor light.  Last month, one lawmaker tried propose a law to subject girls to a “Virginity Test’. Indonesia’s Women’s Affairs Ministry rejected the proposal outright as a violation of human rights. Other members of the legislature were also outraged and dismissed the proposal.  It looks like there are attempts to instill Jane Crow Laws every where.

Women’s reproductive rights still suffer in Indonesia.  It is some what like the situation here because if you are poor, there is no place to go.  As you’ll read, a lot of this is OUR fault. This is from Amnesty International.

Many Indonesian women and girls, especially those from poor and marginalised communities, struggle to achieve reproductive health in the face of discriminatory laws, policies and practices, a new report by Amnesty International says.

Left Without a Choice describes how government restrictions and discriminatory traditions threaten the lives of many Indonesian woman and girls by putting reproductive health services beyond their reach.
“The Indonesian government has pledged to enhance gender equality, but many Indonesian women still struggle for fair and equal treatment”, said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “A combination of unchallenged social attitudes, unfair laws and stereotyped gender roles often relegate women to second-class status.”
Amnesty International research shows how discriminatory practices and problematic laws are restricting access to contraception for unmarried women and girls, and allowing early marriage for girls younger than 16. The law also requires a woman to get her husband’s consent to access certain contraception methods, or an abortion in the event that her life is at risk. Amnesty International also found that health workers frequently deny the full range of legally available contraceptive services to unmarried or childless married women.
Even though the government has taken steps for better protection for women victim of violence, it is failing to ensure that survivors of rape can access health information and services. Although abortion is legally available to women and girls who become pregnant as a result of rape, this fact is not well known, even amongst health workers, and victims of rape can face significant obstacles to accessing safe abortion services.

The US policy under George W. Bush made things worse for Indonesia Women.  This is another quote from the Project Syndicate article that I referenced in the first quote.

Indonesia also demonstrates how Islam can provide support for women’s rights. Among the activist community in Jakarta, the most successful organizations are those that draw support from the women’s wings of Muhammadiyah and NU: Muslimat, Fatayat, and Aisyiyah. The former head of Fatayat, Maria Ulfah Anshor, has made sophisticated arguments grounded in fiqh for women’s access to reproductive rights. And, thanks to a partnership between the state and Islamic scholars stretching back 40 years, Indonesia has one of the most successful family-planning programs in the developing world.

Ironically, the US has done as much to block the efforts of Indonesia’s women’s-rights activists as it has to support them. Former President George W. Bush’s restrictions on funding for health programs that used condoms or other forms of contraception meant that Islamic organizations receiving any funding from the US Agency for International Development were unable to publish material promoting safe-sex and family planning.

This could be, and often was, highly counter-productive. In one particularly absurd case, a group of Muslim feminists who wrote a book promoting women’s rights based on Koranic exegesis had to publish their work in secret, because it included arguments for women’s reproductive rights and a small percentage of the group’s funding came from a foundation that had received money from USAID.

The fact that Islamic organizations have benefited women may also help explain Indonesian women’s political success. The parliament is 18% female (a slightly higher percentage than in the US Congress), and a woman, Megawati Sukarnoputri, was the country’s fourth president. Leading organizations like Umar, Fatayat, and Muslimat provide a corrective to the widespread view that Sharia necessarily impedes women.

Indeed, Indonesian women have shown how Sharia can provide a tool for combating misogynist policies. For example, the head of Islamic affairs in the Ministry of Religion, Nasaruddin Umar, is a self-described Islamic feminist who has published sophisticated critiques of gender bias in Koranic exegesis

Just a short time ago, ABC  announced that the Presidential trip may be canceled because of eruptions by Mount Merapi that has been causing ash clouds and dangerous flying conditions near Jakarta. This would be a shame if this happens because bringing attention to developing nations is important and a U.S. Presidential visit can accomplish that.  Usually, TV programs and newspapers will provide interest pieces about the country and its needs as well as the NGOs that service its people.  There has been a history of military juntas in the country and there are still rebel forces that would like to put a damper on the country’s nascent democracy. Other nations’ need to help stop any potential violent attacks on Indonesia’s democratic government. There is also need for further international support as the country responds to the Mount Merapi Disaster.

Focus on Indonesia is important also because of its successes and its needs.  Other countries in ASEAN–like Vietnam–have similar issues and can benefit from increased focus on the area.  When the US does positive things for the region, the region responds positively. SOS Hillary Clinton visited Indonesia in 2009.  Details about her trip are documented here.

I hope you’ll take the time to read about Indonesia and watch any public interest stories that come up on the country. It’s one of the developing nations that gives development economists a lot of hope.  It’s also important to support our the rights of women and children through out the world.

Sunday Reads

Posted: November 7, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: president teleprompter jesus | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 78 Comments

Good Morning and Happy Sunday!!! I hope everyone remembered to “fall back” last night.

I’m not really recovered from my thousand-mile drive yet, so my reading suggestions might be a little scattered.

Let’s start out with the most controversial story I’ve come across. Via George Washington at Zero Hedge, Noam Chomsky, as is his wont, has come right out and said something the powers that be do not want to hear: there is no real evidence that al Qaeda was behind the 9/11 attacks. Sacrilege, right? Let’s see:

“The explicit and declared motive of the [Afghanistan] war was to compel the Taliban to turn over to the United States, the people who they accused of having been involved in World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist acts. The Taliban…they requested evidence…and the Bush administration refused to provide any,” the 81-year-old senior academic made the remarks on Press TV’s program a Simple Question.

“We later discovered one of the reasons why they did not bring evidence: they did not have any.” [….]

“The head of FBI, after the most intense international investigation in history, informed the press that the FBI believed that the plot may have been hatched in Afghanistan, but was probably implemented in the United Arab Emirates and Germany.”

Chomsky added that three weeks into the war, “a British officer announced that the US and Britain would continue bombing, until the people of Afghanistan overthrew the Taliban… That was later turned into the official justification for the war.”

“All of this was totally illegal. It was more, criminal,” Chomsky said.

But in the post-9/11 world, we no longer need evidence, do we? Nowadays our President can order the assassination of American citizens secretly, with no probable cause and no legal recourse.

Regarding Osama bin Laden’s supposed responsibility for 9/11, George Washington also points to this 2001 story in Wired.

President Bush has said he has evidence that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks, so it would seem obvious that the FBI would include him and other suspects on its 10 most wanted fugitives Web page.

Think again.

Bin Laden is listed, but only for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. There is no mention of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing or the attacks on the USS Cole in October 2000, both of which he is widely believed to have orchestrated. And forget about Sept. 11.
The reason? Fugitives on the list must be formally charged with a crime, and bin Laden is still only a suspect in the recent attacks in New York City and Washington.

“There’s going to be a considerable amount of time before anyone associated with the attacks is actually charged,” said Rex Tomb, who is head of the FBI’s chief fugitive publicity unit and helps decide which fugitives appear on the list. “To be charged with a crime, this means we have found evidence to confirm our suspicions, and a prosecutor has said we will pursue this case in court.”

Nearly nine years later, bin Laden still has not been charged in the 9/11 attacks. This is the world that George W. Bush brought us and Barack Obama seems very comfortable in. As the Zero Hedge post points out, Obama is still using the al Quaeda excuse for continuing his bloody war in Afghanistan.

Speaking of terrorist attacks, can someone please lock Mark Penn up in a padded room somewhere and throw away the key? Penn has once again opened his big fat mouth and said something completely unacceptable.

Appearing on television recently, former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser and current public relations executive Mark Penn suggested that President Obama needs a moment “similar” to the tragic terrorist attack on the Oklahoma City federal building, in order to “reconnect” with voters.

He didn’t even seem to flinch in making the comment. [….]

“Remember, President Clinton reconnected through Oklahoma, right?” Penn said, appearing on MSNBC’s Hardball on Thursday. “And the president right now seems removed. It wasn’t until that speech [after the bombing] that [Clinton] really clicked with the American public. Obama needs a similar — a similar kind of … Yeah.

Isn’t that nice? And we’ll probably be treated to lots of CDS as a result of Penn’s idiotic statements too. Anyway, Obama already had the underwear bomber, and that didn’t seem to do anything for his approval ratings. And then there’s this guy:

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Saturday that the case of a young Chinese man who boarded a flight to Canada elaborately disguised as an elderly white male raises concerns about a security breach that terrorists might exploit.

Authorities have not suggested any terrorist link to the case of the man who boarded the Air Canada flight in Hong Kong on Oct. 29 wearing a remarkably detailed silicone mask to make him look like an elderly man. An internal intelligence alert from the Canadian Border Services Agency shows before-and-after photos, and says the man removed the mask in a washroom mid-flight.

Air Canada confirmed a passenger on board flight AC018 had altered his appearance and had been met by border services officials in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Chinese man is seeking refugee status in Canada in what border officials are calling an “unbelievable case of concealment.” Canadian authorities did not release any information about the passenger’s identity.

I highly recommend this reader diary by David Swanson at FDL: “One Place to Cut Spending: Kidnapping and Torture.”

I know it seems like more of a noble sacrifice to cut spending on things people less fortunate than ourselves need, but can somebody explain to me why it wouldn’t be at least that noble to eliminate the budget of the CIA, which serves no one?

The Washington Post and the Obama administration have been busy telling us that it’s legal to kidnap people and send them to countries that torture. They may call it “renditioning” to nations that use “enhanced interrogation techniques,” but a new book details what this means in English.

A man was walking near his home in Milano, Italy, and was stopped and questioned by a policeman. When they had been engaged in conversation for some minutes, the side door of a van parked behind the man crashed open with a thunderous sound, two extremely large and strong men grabbed the civilian and hauled him inside, and the door slammed shut three seconds after it had opened, as the van accelerated and the two men hit and kicked their victim repeatedly in the dark of the van’s interior, pounding his head, chest, stomach, and legs. They stopped. They stuffed a gag in his mouth and put a hood over his head, as they cinched cords tight around his wrists and ankles. Hours later they threw him into another vehicle. An hour later they took him out, stood him up, cut his clothes off, shoved something hard up his anus, stuck a diaper and pajamas on him, wrapped his head almost entirely with duct tape, and tossed him in an airplane.

The torture he received when he got where he was going left him nearly dead, prematurely aged, and barely able to walk. It was US-sponsored and Egyptian administered. And it is described in all of its almost unbearable detail in Steve Hendricks’ “A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial.”

That sounds like a book that should be on President Obama’s reading list. On the other hand, maybe someone should buy it for Michelle. Maybe she might see the light and talk some sense into her husband.

Mother Jones has a great article on the meaning of the midterm election results.

The most widely accepted narrative to emerge from the 2010 midterm elections, in which Democrats took a “shellacking” [There’s that buzzword again!] and lost the most congressional seats since World War II, was this: Sick of liberal overreach, voters—especially independents—shifted their favor to the right, choosing Republican candidates in huge numbers.

Not so, according to a new exit poll by the firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. The firm’s findings, released Friday, show that voters weren’t necessarily allying themselves with the GOP, but rather were voicing their disapproval with Washington as a whole, and especially with the federal government’s inability to restart America’s economic engine. To wit, voters polled gave equally poor favorability ratings to both parties as well as the tea party, the poll found. Twenty-six percent of voters said their vote was a message to “both parties,” while 20 percent said it was a rebuke of Obama and 15 percent said it was a rebuke of congressional Democrats. Voters’ chief complaint was “too much bickering in Washington”—a charge directed at both parties.

What matters most to voters isn’t political nit-picking or Washington drama but the economy, plain and simple.

IOW, jobs, jobs, jobs!! I’m not holding my breath waiting for the corporate media and the political elites to get it, though.

Here’s a breaking news story [snark font] from the Hindustan Times on President Obama’s trip: Obama to use teleprompter for Hindi speech

According to parliament sources, a technical team from the US has helped the Lok Sabha secretariat install textbook-sized panes of glass around the podium that will give cues to Obama on his prepared remarks to 780 Indian MPs on the evening of Nov 8….

Obama will make history for more than one reason during the Nov 6-9 visit. This will be the first time a teleprompter will be used in the nearly 100-feet high dome-shaped hall that has portraits of eminent national leaders adorning its walls.

Indian politicians are known for making impromptu long speeches and perhaps that is why some parliament officials, who did not wish to be named, sounded rather surprised with the idea of a teleprompter for Obama.

“We thought Obama is a trained orator and skilled in the art of mass address with his continuous eye contact,” an official, who did not wish to be identified because of security restrictions, said.

Obama is known to captivate audiences with his one-liners that sound like extempore and his deep gaze. But few in India know that the US president always carries the teleprompter with him wherever he speaks.

How sad it is to see yet another country disillusioned by the man of “hope ‘n’ change.”

[MABlue here] Frank Rich has a pretty good column today.  He has a decent list of the faux pas of the Obama administration so far.
Barack Obama, Phone Home

AFTER his “shellacking,” President Obama had to do something. But who had the bright idea of scheduling his visit to India for right after this election? The Democrats’ failure to create jobs was at the heart of the shellacking. Nothing says “outsourcing” to the American public more succinctly than India. But the White House didn’t figure this out until the eve of Obama’s Friday departure, when it hastily rebranded his trip as a jobs mission. Perhaps the president should visit one of the Indian call centers policing Americans’ credit-card debts to feel our pain.

Oh! Good luck Texas!

Texas Considers Medicaid Withdrawal

Some Republican lawmakers — still reveling in Tuesday’s statewide election sweep — are proposing an unprecedented solution to the state’s estimated $25 billion budget shortfall: dropping out of the federal Medicaid program.

I thought we were looking for ways to save. You’ve all heard about these horrible deficits  and how we have to “cut spending” ad nauseum. But look here, we keep finding new ways to throw boatloads away:

US seeks to expand military presence in Asia

On his way to Australia for annual security talks, Mr Gates said closer ties with Australia would help the US expand its role in South East Asia.

The US would focus on fighting piracy, improving counter-terrorism, disaster aid and cyber-security, he said.

I thought we had resolved all the problems in “that part of the world”:

Church leader urges Iraqi Christians to quit country

A senior Iraqi Christian is to call on believers to quit the country, after gunmen targeted a church in Baghdad.

Wow! This guy got big brass ones:

Man arrested after exposing self to deputy

A 48-year-old man parked his car in the front row facing the courthouse midday Thursday, pulled down his shorts in front of a Pasco County Sheriff’s Office detective and began masturbating

Talk about “having balls”.

That’s about it for me. What’s on your reading list this morning?

Saturday Night Treats

Posted: November 6, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: open thread, Treats | Tags: , | 69 Comments

It’s Saturday night!!!

Got something to share?

Bring it on!!!

Hot Spinach-Artichoke Dip

Paula Deen

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Show: Paula’s Home CookingEpisode: Neighborhood Cocktail Party

Cook Time:  30 min  Level:  Easy   Yield:   about 4 cups

Ingredients
  • 1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
  • 2 (13 3/4-ounce) cans artichoke hearts
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
  • 1 cup grated pepper jack cheese
Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a casserole dish with nonstick spray.

Heat the spinach in a microwave oven on high for 5 minutes and squeeze dry. Drain the artichoke hearts and coarsely chop in a food processor.

Combine all the ingredients except the jack cheese in a large bowl. Stir well. Scrape into the prepared casserole dish and sprinkle the jack cheese on top. Bake for 30 minutes. Transfer to a chafing dish and keep warm over a low flame. Serve with bagel chips.

p.s I like the old fashion thing we do down here in New Orleans.  We put it on either fresh French or Italian bread!

This is an open thread.

Gulf Gusher Update: Oil Does NOT Vanish

Posted: November 6, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Gulf Oil Spill, New Orleans | Tags: , , | 43 Comments

They may have killed the well, but don’t believe any one when they say that the worst is over.  The problem is that you’re probably not hearing anything or seeing anything about the aftermath because there seems to be no media around the Gulf Coast other than the locals.  Here’s the latest one that I was tweeted today that sent me off to a blogging state of mind.  This is from Project Gulf Impact and you really need to watch their video.

This is of special interest to me because I swear the last batch of shrimp I got at the ghetto Winn Dixie had something greasy in the intestine.  It was so bad, I threw them away.  When I rubbed the black gunk between my fingers, it smeared and stayed there.  It took quite a bit of Dawn to get it to go away. It also tasted gritty and greasy.

Despite repeated statements from the EPA and NOAA assuring residents that thorough Gulf of Mexico seafood testing has revealed levels safe for human consumption, public skepticism has continued to deter many locals from their usual seafood medley. Independent scientists have expressed concern over the published methods and protocols used by federal agencies to open sensitive fishing grounds & determine seafood safety. Invertebrates, such as shrimp, crab, & oysters, are of particular concern due to their feeding habits, relatively stationary lifestyle, and inability to process highly toxic compounds found in crude oil called Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH). Unfortunately, their concerns have proven valid.

One local activist, “Mac” Mackenzie of NOLA Emergency Response, decided that it was time to take matters into her own hands. After an incessant 7-week investigation, Mac was able to obtain crucial information from our government regarding the specifics of Gulf shrimp testing. Particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, it is common for shrimp to be prepared and even served whole, with the shell and digestive tract intact. When Mac learned that the Gulf shrimp testing performed to date had not included an analysis of whole shrimp with intact shells or digestive tract, she decided to mobilize. She obtained two pounds of locally caught shrimp from Venice, a small town located in the heart of Southern Louisiana. The samples were promptly transported on ice to a laboratory in Mobile Alabama, where Chemist Dr. Robert Namen tested the digestive tracts of the shrimp for components of crude oil. What they found was an alarming 193 parts per million of “Oil & Grease.”

This story came on top of another one this week concerning dead and dying Coral close to the killer wellhead.  This is from The Times Picayune.

Image courtesy of Lophelia II 2010 Expedition, NOAA-OER/BOEMRE A single colony of coral with dying and dead sections on left, apparently living tissue at right, and bare skeleton with sickly looking brittle star on the base.

A brown substance is killing coral organisms in colonies located 4,600 feet deep about seven miles southwest of the failed BP Macondo oil well, according to scientists who returned Thursday from a three-week cruise studying coral reefs in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

The finding is the first case in which researchers have found evidence that living organisms in the deepwater area near the well site might have been killed by oil from the spill.

Penn State University biology professor Charles Fisher, chief scientist aboard the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown said soft coral in a 15-meter to 40-meter area was covered by what appeared to be a brown substance.

“Ninety percent of 40 large corals were heavily affected and showed dead and dying parts and discoloration,” according to a news release reporting the findings by Fisher and other scientists issued jointly by NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Managment, Regulation and Enforcement, which co-sponsored the research. “Another site 400 meters away had a colony of stony coral similarly affected and partially covered with a similar brown substance.”

“While this mission was not designed to be focused on oil spill research, the timing and location provided an opportunity to observe any impacts to our research areas,” Fisher said in the news release. Fisher was unavailable for further comment on Thursday night.

The release said the scientists “observed dead and dying corals with sloughing tissue and discoloration.”

That’s just some of the continued impact on the ecosystem down here.  The town of Gulf Shores, Alabama reports  they are still owed $2 million in lost revenues. A city meeting also discussed outstanding claims by businesses and individuals.  This, despite the uptick in local advertising I’ve seen on ad ‘stories’ of how BP has made me whole again run by BP here on our local TV stations. The ad revenues for this things must be unbelievably large.

A BP spokesman did not respond to inquiries about the lost revenue claims.

Also at Monday’s meeting, Dyken reported that officials were still trying to work out problems with the lack of claims paid by Ken Feinberg’s Gulf Coast Claims Facility to individuals and businesses.

Officials in south Baldwin County were expected to meet with Feinberg this week, Dyken said.

Baldwin County had received about $219 million, Dyken said.

“Some people still haven’t been paid on claims that are legitimate,” he said. “They have distributed a large amount of money. It’s just whether that money has gone to the appropriate parties in the appropriate places. There’s not a lot of rhyme or reason to some payments being made and others not. There’s also not the degree of transparency we would like in the process.”

In order to ensure that the oil spill’s lingering affects do not carry into next year, Doughty suggested expanding the tourist season.

“We need rebranding of the Gulf so that people understand the Gulf is safe, whether it’s Gulf seafood, Gulf beach, air whatever,” she said. “With tourism being our No. 1 economic engine here, anything we can do to help tourism would be great.”

This is particularly weird given the report by a Pensacola/Mobile TV station that a tourist was slimed with aging Oil last week.  You can see the pictures and the news report here at the Channel 5 website.

Jonathan Jones’ palm still has an oil mark. He says he emerged from the water after a brief swim in Gulf Shores with trace amounts of crude.

“We looked at it and kind of smeared it a bit and figured out it was oil,” says Jones. He says he had to bathe with dish soap to get it off. At first he was worried about dispersants but then he quickly calmed down.

“There are hundreds of people on this beach and no one else had this happen,” says Jones. It’s probably important to put what happened to Jonathan in perspective. This appears to be an isolated incident and the beaches are most certainly still open

Meanwhile, future troubles lurk too. MoJo has identified the BP Atlantis–something BostonBoomer has written about–as another ‘Ticking Time Bomb in the Gulf’.

Located 124 miles off the Louisiana coast, the Atlantis platform produces 200,000 barrels of oil daily, more than triple the amount of oil that spilled from the Horizon site each day. But long before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, a whistleblowing former BP contractor tipped off regulators that the Atlantis may be violating the law, and environmental groups and members of Congress have been publicly questioning the platform’s safety ever since.

According to Kenneth Abbott, a former BP contractor who worked on the platform from 2008 through early 2009, more than 7,000 documents necessary to operate the platform safely are missing or incomplete. Abbott says the vast majority of the project’s subsea piping and instrument diagrams were not approved by engineers, and the safety systems are out of date. In practice, the lack of documentation on this platform would make it extremely difficult to respond in the event of an accident like the Deepwater Horizon blowout, critics say, because no one really has an accurate picture of the Atlantis’ design.

This seems to be the forgotten disaster and environmental disasters do not just disappear.  Down here, the big election

Tony Bologna apologizes endlessly in the new series of BP spoofs on South Park at Comedy Central.

story was between Vitter and Melancon and both were fighting over who could be the most welcoming to the drillers and spillers.  The MSM appeared more fixated on political personalities than issues.  The only program still properly fixated on the BP Gusher is South Park that has a completely hilarious bit where Tony continually apologizes and then keeps on with making worse decisions.  You can click on the picture to watch the episodes at Comedy Central or just the apology ad campaign send up.

If  you live down here were there are daily reports of “massive stretches of weathered oil spotted in the Gulf of Mexico”. This report on a sighting is dated from October 23, 2010.  That means it’s post well plugging.  Again, this is from the Times Picayune here in New Orleans.

Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta.

The discovery, which comes as millions of birds begin moving toward the region in the fall migration, gave ammunition to groups that have insisted the government has overstated clean-up progress, and could force reclosure of key fishing areas only recently reopened.

The oil was sighted in West Bay, which covers approximately 35 square miles of open water between Southwest Pass, the main shipping channel of the river, and Tiger Pass near Venice. Boat captains working the BP clean-up effort said they have been reporting large areas of surface oil off the delta for more than a week but have seen little response from BP or the Coast Guard, which is in charge of the clean-up. The captains said most of their sightings have occurred during stretches of calm weather, similar to what the area has experienced most of this week.

The Coast Guard is saying parts of it are just algae but frankly, I believe the captains of Louisiana’s Cajun/Creole fishing fleet. Again, this thing and its impact are not over by a long shot.  It’s absolutely necessary to continue to hold our elected officials and BP accountable for all the damage done and still happening to the ecosystem, wildlife, and people of the Gulf.

Saturday Reads

Posted: November 6, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: morning reads | Tags: , | 37 Comments

Good Morning!!!

File this one from The Hill under no surprises!  Sean J Miller’s headline says it all: ‘Hillary voters’ abandon Democrats”. I even voted for a blue dawg congressman to become a blue dawg senator, it did no good whatsoever.  I think when every one was told they didn’t need the votes, a lot of people took them seriously.

The blue-collar voters who supported Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential run deserted her party in droves on Tuesday, according to a new poll.

Democrats’ support from white, non-college-educated male voters dropped 12 percent from 2008, according to a survey Greenberg Quinlan Rosner conducted Nov. 2-3 for Democracy Corps and Campaign for America’s Future.

Only 29 percent of blue-collar men support Democrats in 2010, down from 41 percent last cycle, according to the survey of 1,000 2008 voters, of which 897 voted on Tuesday.

“These are gigantic losses,” Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, whose firm conducted the survey, said on a conference call with reporters Friday.

Greenberg said President Obama and the Democratic leadership failed to articulate a clear economic message.

The process surrounding the healthcare bill, which passed in March, reinforced the perception voters’ had that the Democrats were spending too much time bickering with the GOP, increasing federal spending and listening to lobbyists instead of average people on major legislation.

I’ve been writing about one or another version of it’s the jobs stupid or it’s the economy stupid for about around two years.  You’d have to really be deaf not to understand how folks are hurting for a decent wage and a decent job these days.

The more conservative side of Politico has this headline that’s a grabber too: ‘The ego factor: Can Obama change?’ I guess one of the reasons that I want to quote this some is that it interviews two Louisiana folks; James Carville and Douglas Brinkley.

“Humility is a great quality, and it’s one that people will respect,” said historian Douglas Brinkley, who teaches at Rice University. “Ronald Reagan could be seen as a polarizing presence, but he also knew how to play humble when it was necessary. Where is President Obama’s self-deprecating humor? Kennedy and Reagan could both be very self-deprecating. People liked that.”

“The worst thing that happened to Obama is he’s lost a lot of his aura. Even his friends think he’s thin-skinned and a bit highfalutin,” he said.

It’s the sort of complaint that comes to the fore in background conversations with lawmakers, lobbyists and veterans of previous administrations who interact with Obama’s West Wing staffers: that they’ve created a cult of personality around Obama, having followed their boss on his rapid and improbable ascent to the presidency. Many of these devotees do, indeed, feel that he is the political equivalent of NBA phenom LeBron James. The view is based on a belief that Obama’s outsize political skills and uncommon personal poise make him different than conventional politicians and immune to conventional political laws of gravity.

One Obama insider said it is a view that starts at the top. Having triumphed over an early perception by political insiders and many journalists that he could not defeat front-runner Hillary Clinton, Obama, this person said, frequently invokes the 2008 experience and what he believes was its lesson — always stay the course, don’t be distracted by ephemeral controversies or smart-set importuning for a change of direction.

Some believe this is an admirable instinct carried to a dangerous degree.

“Obama would sort of say, ‘Look, I’m smart. I know what I’m doing. You’ll just have to trust me,’” said Democratic strategist and commentator James Carville. “It was kind of beneath him to explain the reasons behind his actions to people — how TARP really worked, how the stimulus was helping. … You had a lot of signs — New Jersey, Virginia, Scott Brown — but they thought what they were doing was going to turn out all right.”

If you don’t read James K. Galbraith at New Deal 2.0, you really should.  He’s got a great piece up over there that says Obama has to ‘break his devil’s pact with the banks to succeed’.

The original sin of Obama’s presidency was to assign economic policy to a closed circle of bank-friendly economists and Bush carryovers. Larry Summers. Timothy Geithner. Ben Bernanke. These men had no personal commitment to the goal of an early recovery, no stake in the Democratic Party, no interest in the larger success of Barack Obama. Their primary goal, instead, was and remains to protect their own past decisions and their own professional futures.

Up to a point, one can defend the decisions taken in September-October 2008 under the stress of a rapidly collapsing financial system. The Bush administration was, by that time, nearly defunct. Panic was in the air, as was political blackmail — with the threat that the October through January months might be irreparably brutal. Stopgaps were needed, they were concocted, and they held the line.

But one cannot defend the actions of Team Obama on taking office. Law, policy and politics all pointed in one direction: turn the systemically dangerous banks over to Sheila Bair and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Insure the depositors, replace the management, fire the lobbyists, audit the books, prosecute the frauds, and restructure and downsize the institutions. The financial system would have been cleaned up. And the big bankers would have been beaten as a political force.

The job market figures were released yesterday and they definitely had an impact on the financial markets. This is from Bloomberg.

Treasuries fell, with five-year note yields rising for the first time in seven days, while U.S. benchmark equity indexes gained to two-year highs and the dollar strengthened as jobs growth bolstered optimism in the economy

The 5-year Treasury note’s yield rose six basis points to 1.09 percent at 4 p.m. in New York, rebounding from a record low this week. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 0.4 percent to 1,225.85, its highest level since Sept. 19, 2008. The Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against six peers, snapped a three-day drop to climb from its 2010 low. Commodity indexes rose to the highest levels since October 2008 as copper surged to a 28-month high amid a mining strike in Chile.

The jobs market data itself wasn’t great but it certainly wasn’t bad.  Economist Mark Thoma explains the wishy washy view.

I’ve seen some people calling this a strong report. It’s certainly better than lower job growth numbers, so it could have been worse, but in past recoveries we’ve had job growth of hundreds of thousands, far more that this. So let’s try to put it in perspective. Many people estimate that 7.5 million jobs have been lost since the start of the recession (and some people estimate it’s even more than this). Suppose it takes 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with population growth. I think it’s a bit more than this, but let’s take an estimate that is generous in terms of making up lost ground. With a net gain of 50,000 jobs (rounding from 51,000), how long would it take to reemploy the 7.5 million who need jobs? The answer is (7.5 million)/(50,000) = 150 months = 12.5 years.

Iraqi prisoners were not only abused by Americans but also by the UK.  This is a horrifying report at The Guardian.

Evidence of the alleged systematic and brutal mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at a secret British military interrogation centre that is being described as “the UK’s Abu Ghraib” emerged yesterday during high court proceedings brought by more than 200 former inmates.

The court was told there was evidence that detainees were starved, deprived of sleep, subjected to sensory deprivation and threatened with execution at the shadowy facilities near Basra operated by the Joint Forces Interrogation Team, or JFIT.

It also received allegations that JFIT’s prisoners were beaten, forced to kneel in stressful positions for up to 30 hours at a time, and that some were subjected to electric shocks. Some of the prisoners say that they were subject to sexual humiliation by women soldiers, while others allege that they were held for days in cells as small as one metre square.

Michael Fordham QC, for the former inmates, said the question needed to be asked: “Is this Britain’s Abu Ghraib?”

I can’t even think up a response to the video or information shared in that article.

Okay, so I’m going to end with another ‘no surprises here’ post.  Ozzy Osbourne is actually a mutant. No really.

A study of the hard-partying rocker revealed he actually has several genetic mutations that may explain how he’s lived so long, scientists say.

Some of them “we’ve never seen before,” said geneticist Nathaniel Pearson, who was part of the team that sequenced Osbourne’s DNA for Massachusetts lab Knome Inc.

“I’ve always said that at the end of the world there will be roaches, Ozzy and Keith Richards,” the Prince of Darkness’ wife Sharon Osbourne said.

“He’s going to outlive us all. That fascinated me – how can his body endure so much.”

The 61-year-old “Black Sabbath” singer is as famous for his colossal intake as he is for his voice. He once said he did LSD every day for two years and he drank booze like water.

No surprisingly, many of the anomalies scientists discovered had to do with how he processes drugs and alcohol.

Ozzy was just here in town for voodoo fest.  I imagine he left DNA samples all over the place if the scientists still are looking for more.  Since it’s still the morning, I’ll treat you to some mellow Ozzy.

So, that’s my contribution today.

What’s on you reading and blogging list?
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